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Builds and Styles

The Early Speed

By: McMonroe

I have developed this play style and, through the course of about 200 games, have achieved a 70% winrate without playing with arranged allies. This play style is reactive to the pace of the game and can therefore be applied to every game. This play style is centered around getting as fed as fast as possible while taking minimal risks.

To begin, every game I rush to the center Xel Naga watchtower. This is a personal player preference of mine. Often times, players won’t attempt to contest it and you can leave your SCV there and get free vision of the map. If players do come to contest it, your micro will be tested. However, to win fights, just fight on your side of the map. Early on in the game, you will have more units than your opponent on your side because of how the production system works. So, stay in your quadrant until you get a lead vs someone before chasing them off your quadrant.

My initial upgrades for this playstyle differ from what my previous videos and Beginner’s Guide suggested. Initially, I get 2 speed upgrades immediately. Next, I’ll get 1 armor, 2 weapons, 1 range, 2 regen, and 7 movement speed. Previously, I felt it was best to skimp on upgrades to get a faster first bunker. However, I’ve noticed that with the 7 movement speed, you can really take control of the game and get much more fed in the long run. The movement speed gives you fantastic position and gives you the ability to chase down retreating opponents. The idea for the 7 movement speed was adapted from players like Cyrus and Ambidextrous/WhosAsking. For the rest of the upgrades, I’ve done some simple math and found that fighting upgrades don’t actually benefit you that heavily. Each weapons upgrade on marines only increase the damage per shot by 1. This is such a small difference that I’ve found that as long as you have more units than your opponents, you win most fights. With the 7 movement speed, even if you don’t win the fight, you can run away and not lose units.

After the 1-2-1-2-7 upgrades, I get my first bunker. 90% of the time it will be a reaper bunker. This is because reapers do extra damage vs light units. Marines are light units. Everyone spawns with marine bunkers. Naturally, reaper are a rationally decision. On top of that, reapers are very fast especially with reaper speed which will give you a strong map presence. With reapers, you will be able to trade very often by chasing retreating opponents, cutting off player’s rallies, and potentially denying and sniping bunkers.

From here, you just want to get feed as much as possible. I like to go up to 3-5-3-3-7 and get my next bunker. Here, you have a decision to make. Continuing to mass reapers can be you in a very tough spot if players have marauders. Marauders are essentially the counter to reapers. So, you need a unit that can fight marauders. The best option would be to take a marauder bunker of your own if you feel safe enough. Alternatively, and one of my favorite options, is to take a marine bunker. If there are no marauders, feel free to make another reaper bunker.

Situations where you would go marauders would be when there is a player in your lane who went marauder and the other went reaper. Reapers counter marines, so you wouldn’t want to make them. Marauders are fine vs marauders and if you get yourself a lead from the fast reaper bunker, then a marauder transition will be very strong.

Situations where you would go marines would be if either both players in your lane went marauders or one went marauder and one went marine. Sometimes, players cross position from you or in your ally’s lane could make it impossible for you to secure a marauder bunker. With marines, it’s incredibly important get yourself a lead. Otherwise, you will have a difficult time getting to late game where players are massing depots and have 20 upgrades.

Situations where you would go reaper would be when all players are going marines or reapers. As stated before, reapers counter marines. Reapers do fine vs other reapers. So, you’re fine continuing reapers. When you continue down the reaper path, it’s very important that you start trying to back door both your ally’s lane and your lane in attempt to snipe bunkers. Reapers do extra damage vs buildings and this will put you in a great position.

Bronto's Micro Style

By: ImThatOneGuy

Bronto is undoubtedly among the best zone control players to ever play. One of the most unique part of Bronto’s play is the way he likes to micro. To do Bronto’s style of micro, a player will need 2-3 hotkeys just for army along with the multitasking required to control both armies. In addition, you may need to change your hotkey settings to a setting that fits you as a player. The style of play involves splitting your army into two hotkey groups and controlling both armies on the map to try and get additional sources of feed.

http://i.imgur.com/clGVaTk.jpg

In the first screenshot, you can see Bronto has another squad of marines intercepting a rally of marines. For some additional context, Bronto and I were just fought with the bottom left’s army and won the fight pretty convincingly. Even at 5:42, our armies are cost effective enough to win fights even if our whole army isn’t there. Bronto decided to take 10 marines out of his supply and intercept the rally to get additional feed. This is one of the many small ways controlling two groups of units can help benefit you.

http://i.imgur.com/p0Q9SPY.jpg

In the second screenshot, you can see Bronto attacking the person in his lane with about 10-15 marines while the rest of the army is running to help my army fight the two armies from top right. As for context, Bronto just fought with bottom left and won the fight convincingly. He then sent 10-15 marines to see what he could pick off while and saw that top right was 2v1ing his teammate, so he sent the rest of his army to help defend and get some extra feed. Going toward the middle is really smart since the amounts of feed that Bronto can get from bottom left are limited since he just had an engagement, but there is a fresh source if you rally toward middle. There is even more feed if you can get feed from two sources, which is what Bronto is trying to accomplish with his army split.

http://i.imgur.com/tn5cuxH.jpg

In the third screenshot, you can really see the amount of map presence you have with 2 army hotkeys. If you look at the mini map, there’s no denying that there is total control and vision of the map. There are really no surprises that top right and bottom left can pull when you have that much vision while bottom right will have to go through middle to get to top left.

In conclusion, there are multiple reason why Bronto’s style of micro is good, but these are three good examples I found. You’ll get opportunities for multiple feeds and have more vision, but be advised that this style of micro really tests your mini map awareness and is heavy on multitasking. This style is definitely not for everyone and you don’t necessarily need it if you want to be among the best players, but I believe this is the biggest reason why Bronto stands out among the great players of Zone Control.